enzo’s blog

No, you didn't read wrong: an Indian student has developed a way of encoding data into coloured geometric shapes that can be printed and thus stored onto a sheet of paper or plastic. The page can then be rescanned and decoded back into a usable format on your computer. I love it!

M. A. Siraj (arabnews.com) writes:

BANGALORE, 18 November 2006 — Is it time to say goodbye to CDs, DVDs, Zip drives?

A Kerala student has developed a technique for portable data whereby the data can now be stored on ordinary paper. And to boot, larger amounts of data can be had on lesser space.

The immediate question that pops into the mind is how to retrieve the data. Will it be as easy as feeding a floppy disc or CD into the drive and having it on the monitor? Perhaps it will be much easier than that. The piece of paper or even plastic sheet storing the data has only to be scanned in the scanner and read over the monitor. So wait, scan drive would be part of your computer.

Named “Rainbow Technology”, the new technique is the brainchild of Sainul Abideen, who has just finished his MCA at Muslim Educational Society Engineering College in Kuttipuram in Kerala’s Malappuram district.

The extremely low-cost technology will drastically reduce the cost of storage and provide for high-speed storage as well. Files in any format such as movie files, songs, images and text can be stored using this technology.

» Full Story (via techworld.com)

Now this is what I call a useful medical break-through... Andy Coghlan (newscientist.com) writes:

Saliva from humans has yielded a natural painkiller up to six times more powerful than morphine, researchers say.

The substance, dubbed opiorphin, may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers that relieve pain as well as morphine but without the addictive and psychological side effects of the traditional drug.

When the researchers injected a pain-inducing chemical into rats’ paws, 1 gram of opiorphin per kilogram of body weight achieved the same painkilling effect as 3 grams of morphine.

The substance was so successful at blocking pain that, in a test involving a platform of upended pins, the rats needed six times as much morphine as opiorphin to render them oblivious to the pain of standing on the needle points.

» Full Story

Hopefully the price tag on the drug won't be prohibitively expensive.

It's encouraging to read about someone who is pro actively improving the efficiency of their life by executing multiple actions within a sensible context, instead of mindlessly keeping busy in a frenzy of anxious hypertasking:

My prime example, and one I do twice a day now, is to walk to and from work (about 40-50 minutes walk, either way) and listen to audio books on the iPod. I could take my bike or the bus, but the former precludes me from wearing headphones (that would be irresponsible, in traffic) and the latter leaves me feeling lazy. (Well, that and the fact that my local bus doubles as the high school bus, filled to capacity with boisterous teenagers who enjoy pulling each others’ fingers.) So I walk to work, rain or shine, snow or sleet, with Plato, Shunryu Suzuki, BBC/CBC documentaries, David Allen, Stephen R. Covey, Seth Godin, Dale Carnegie, sundry industry podcasts, or other speakers buzzing in my ear. Every now and then, when I want to remember something, I haul out my pen and an index card, and jot down a note. In effect, I’m combining physical improvement with mental and spiritual improvement.

» Full Story (via lifehacker; in turn via lifedev)

This isn't about the lethal implications of getting star struck by an encounter with James Woods or even Tiger Woods (unless he swung at you with a nine iron -- giving new meaning to the phrase). No... this is an article that talks about the potentially killer panic that can grip you if you ever find yourself lost in the wilderness without a sign or hope of rescue:

A psychology lesson that could save your life

WHEN STEVE DUNN STUMBLED ACROSS THE FUSELAGE of a bush plane sunk into the muck in the labyrinthine delta of Upper Russian Lake, the unease he had felt since becoming lost in the Alaskan wilderness turned to terror. "I'm going to die up here." he remembers thinking. Alone and cold. Dunn was catapulting into the third and most dangerous stage of the phenomenon psychologists call "woods shock," the confusion and fear that humans feel when they become lost.

As an experienced outdoorsman, he knew that the wisest action was to shelter in the plane wreckage and signal for rescue, or at least rest awhile and gather his wits, But being lost caused so much stress on Dunn's nervous system that he was not able to think logically.

Woods shock is a very real condition, and it happens often in survival situations. Understanding it can help you live. Otherwise, it can turn a bad situation into a fatal free fall.

Goes on to cover the following symptoms and stages:

1. DISORIENTATION
2. URGENCY
3. PANIC
4. PLANNING
5. FATIGUE
6. WILL TO LIVE

... as well as 3 tips on how to survive the situation. Good stuff!

» Full Story (original source)

Brilliant article, not just as a guide on how to read people, but on how to become more aware of yourself and becoming transparent to others in the process.

Learning to read people is one of the most important skills you can have in your interpersonal life. Whether you’re focusing on professional success, friendship, romance, marriage, career or parenting, understanding How to Read People will give you the ability to make sound decisions and develop incredible insight into people’s lives. With practice, your ability to understand the core motivations, desires, and thoughts of others can become so accurate as to border on an invasion of privacy.

» Part 1 | Part 2 (added: 11/07) | Part 3 (added: 11/09)

... it's the first of a three-part series; promises to be good!

I love hearing about this kind of thing -- talk about hitting the hornet's nest with a stick!

Excerpt:

Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard biologist, has built on this idea to propose that people are born with a moral grammar wired into their neural circuits by evolution. In a new book, Moral Minds (HarperCollins 2006), he argues that the grammar generates instant moral judgments which, in part because of the quick decisions that must be made in life-or-death situations, are inaccessible to the conscious mind.

...

The proposal, if true, would have far-reaching consequences. It implies that parents and teachers are not teaching children the rules of correct behavior from scratch but are, at best, giving shape to an innate behavior. And it suggests that religions are not the source of moral codes but, rather, social enforcers of instinctive moral behavior.

» Full Story

In the immortal words of Boneywasawarriorwayayix: "After my siesta." Fortunately, you don't have to be Corsican to follow the philosophy. Uncommon Body publishes their top 5 reasons to take a good afternoon kip:

Thomas Edison, Napoleon Bonaparte, Salvador Dali, Winston Churchill, and Presidents Kennedy and Reagan had something in common? In fact, each of them enjoyed a regular nap.

While small children typically take naps in the afternoon, our culture generally frowns upon mid-day sleep; however, many people feel a mid-afternoon slump in mood and alertness, especially after a poor night of sleep. Many believe that this slump is caused by eating a heavy lunch. However, in reality, this occurs because we were meant to have a mid-afternoon nap.

In a nutshell:

1. Increased Alertness And Productivity
2. Less Stress
3. Improved Memory And Learning
4. Increased Coginitive Functioning
5. Better Health

I'm sold. Zzz...

A while back I created this Firefox throbber replacement by extracting the various Doom space marine console facial expressions from the original game and compiling them into an animated gif. Thought I'd share it with the masses...

Download: doomguy_ff_throbber.zip

Installation:

• extract to: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\chrome
• or: C:\Documents and Settings\%user%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\########.default\chrome

... preferably the latter, since I reckon it's a good idea to keep the install folder as clean and 'default' as possible.

If you already have a userChrome.css file in the destination folder, then simply append the contents of the included one to it.

Note: With minimal effort/intelligence, it's possible to use this script to replace the default throbber with any two graphics.

Have fun!

Any fool can load up an espresso machine with decent coffee and make a consistently good shot (almost) every time. However, it take real skill and commitment to create a master cup using a Bodum or drip machine. Here's your guide to how to do just that... Russ Parsons (latimes.com) writes:

French Press

So, I figured, how hard can it be to make a great pot of coffee? Rooting around in my pantry, I found an old French press machine, and I thought I could improvise. And that's when the depth of my ignorance really hit me: What kind of beans should I use? Will the same ones I use for espresso be OK? Where do the best beans come from? And what about the "roast" anyway? How much coffee for the pot? How finely ground? How much water? How long do I let it steep before pressing?

So many questions, and judging from the amount of coffee left in my guest's cup, I got the answers to all of them wrong. After more than 20 years of espressos, whatever coffee-making skills I'd once had were long gone, vanished from my memory like the lyrics to a George Michael song.

... goes on to cover the following subtopics:

1. Begin with the beans
2. The all-important grinder
3. Drip or press? You decide

» Full Story

Planning on starting a business with little-to-no money? Don't do it before reading this book.

Excerpt:

Bootstrapper's Bibile by Seth Godin

What’s a Bootstrapper?

Well, since you bought this manifesto, chances are that you qualify! For me, a bootstrapper isnʼt a particular demographic or even a certain financial situation. Instead, itʼs a state of mind.

Bootstrappers run billion-dollar companies, nonprofit organizations, and start-ups in their basements. A bootstrapper is determined to build a business that pays for itself every day. In many ways, itʼs easiest to define a bootstrapper by what she isnʼt: a money-raising bureaucrat who specializes in using other peopleʼs money to take big risks in growing a business. Not that thereʼs anything wrong with that…

You can use the information in this manifesto to make any company more focused, more efficient, and more grassroots. Throughout this manifesto, though, Iʼll be primarily addressing the classic bootstrapper: entrepreneurs who are working their butts off to start a great business from scratch with no (or almost no) money.